Like many engineers, Ben Kuhn found his best ideas emerged during showers—but this revealed an uncomfortable truth about his work priorities. As a new manager still splitting time between coding and leadership, his shower thoughts consistently drifted toward technical puzzles rather than people problems. This mismatch in focus, he discovered, aligned perfectly with investor Byrne Hobart's productivity tiers for knowledge workers:

"The output of knowledge workers is extremely skewed based on focus [...] '50%+ focus' is roughly when something becomes the top idea in your mind. It’s when you start caring enough to think about it in the shower."

Kuhn's initial management attempts faltered because programming consumed his cognitive bandwidth. Only when he embraced intentional focus strategies did he break through:

  1. Care Viscerally: Forced focus fails. True attention requires emotional investment—like Kuhn’s need to physically see users benefiting from his fintech startup Wave’s work to maintain motivation.

  2. Monotask Relentlessly: When coding, Kuhn would literally stare at the ceiling rather than context-switch when blocked. This pressure cooker approach often sparked creative breakthroughs like reverse-engineering APIs.

  3. Evade Obligations: As a manager, he limits himself to one primary human obligation. Secondary requests get deflected with "I’ll get back to you in a couple years"—preserving mental space for critical priorities.

  4. Timebox Bullshit: Administrative tasks get confined to designated 1-hour weekly slots. Outside these, Kuhn aggressively avoids "open loops" like email threads that fracture attention, even training friends not to message him.

The breakthrough came during Kuhn’s third management attempt when team growth forced full-time leadership—eliminating coding distractions. With showers now devoted to people challenges, focus compounded into competence. For engineers and leaders alike, his epiphany resonates: extraordinary output demands monopolizing your mind’s shower time for what truly matters.

Source: Ben Kuhn's Blog